Description

Tired of having to use a exact-o knife to clean off your 3d printed parts?

Well then, just throw you parts in a 1 quart paint can with some rocks, wait several hours and voilÃ ! You have partially cleaned parts that still need to be deburred. err, well .... Maybe I did something wrong. I am sure you will have better luck.

This is a great low cost DIY solution for those who don't want to pay an arm and a leg for a rock tumbler. I have had mine running now for a coupler hours. I don't know if the parts are getting cleaned but I do know that it seems to be functioning as expected. I will probably be selling the kits. I don't really know what to use as an abbrasive. I went with a bag of small gravel from home depot. The gravel doesn't seem to work at all for me. It might just need a lot more time. I think I will head to Harbour Frieght and get a bag of walnut shells tomorrow.

REV 2.0 Coming Soon

Improvements in version 2:

addition of a 3rd gear

a new frame

all new gears

Gear box cover

Electronics upgrade including Speed control*

*depends on if the parts come in before I am done

Recent Comments

Any chance to put up some pictures? I would love to see some results. I figured the motor would have longevity issues. Which motor did you switch to? I haven't looked at this project in quite some time. I might have to revisit it and update the project again.

Any chance to put up some pictures? I would love to see some results. I figured the motor would have longevity issues. Which motor did you switch to? I haven't looked at this project in quite some time. I might have to revisit it and update the project again.

I've been looking at lapidary parts finishing for a while now, but haven't yet jumped in and spent money due to a lack of knowledge. From what I've gathered, I think a vibratory machine might be better suited to printed parts than a tumbler. Honestly I think a blasting chamber might be best but I can't have that amount of mess and dust in my shop. I'll be interested to hear your results with various media.

Some helpful tips from experience with my own mill. your barrel may gradually shift to one end or the other if its not perfectly flat, then it will fall off. to fix this, just put a small lip on the outer segments of the driving tube, even a smooth barrel can do surprising damage in an hour of rubbing on ABS. Also, use a brushless motor for heavier loads, brushed motors wont last too long if the are drawing a fair load, such as if your using this for milling aluminium powder for example.
Lastly, lubricate every moving part, abs does infact wear, even the supernaturally tough lego ABS does.

Edward R. Swoboda, of Los Angeles supposedly made the first in 1950 and I'm willing you haven't been waiting 50 years to make a 3d printed version. The design you want to take credit for is probably the most common one there is.

well, if you knew anything about how lapidary polishing works, youll know that anything softer, will polish the surface and grind itself, anything of equal hardness with polish both surfaces, and anything harder will grind the surface and polish itself. aka, quartz will polish quartz, steel will grind away aluminium, and plastic will plolish, and not grind away, plastic

Wow, they have a dual barrel tumbler for almost as cheap as I made this one! I know it's not always about the cost. It's about taking pride in building something yourself but that's kind of discouraging. Looks like I better make mine work very well. On that note, I am currently working on a fix to double the speed of the rollers. You can see what I am printing @ http://2n2r5.nethttp://2n2r5.net:8585 If all goes well I will update the files and provide the fix as a package.

="thingiverse-2ab65a72cef0f72196d92ae1eab2580f:disqus" href="http://disqus.com/thingiverse-2ab65a72cef0f72196d92ae1eab2580f/alphapirho I have thought about that. I don't have too much of a choice with the current setup. The container is some where around 11 RPM right now. I would love to double that but I don't think I have enough room to double the size of the drive gear. I will look into it though. Thanks!

="thingiverse-492114f6915a69aa3dd005aa4233ef51:disqus" href="http://disqus.com/thingiverse-492114f6915a69aa3dd005aa4233ef51/yzorg I think your right about the gravity being an issue. That might just mean that I need to use something that is very abrasive for a longer period of time. I could always go with beach sand or something of that nature. I will pick up some materials today and let you know how they work. I am going out of town for business so I will try to get this done before I leave.